Odessa College men's golf team finishes 5th at the 2014 NJCAA Division I national golf championship in Burlington, Iowa

~ more golf news ~

For Immediate Release:
Tuesday, November 11, 2014
Odessa, Texas

By: Alana Rowland
(Odessa College Sports Information Director)On Thursday, November 6th 2014 at the Odessa Country Club (Links Course) the Odessa College Golf team was competing in their annual Odessa College Classic. No one knew the exciting events that would take place that day on holes 7 and 13; especially not Wrangler golfer Vetle Maroy.

Maroy, a freshman from Norway has finished in the top 10 in all tournaments he’s competed in this fall. He has 2 first places finishes, 2 runner-up finishes, and is currently ranked #1 in the NJCAA D-I poll. Maroy teed up on the 7th hole (a par 5, 566 yard hole) and drove the ball on the right side of the fairway, into the trees. He made his way over to his ball, took out his 4 iron and took a swing; about a 240 yard swing. That second swing was good enough for one bounce onto the green; it struck the pin, and fell straight into the hole! An Albatross (or to some people a “double-eagle”) – but whatever you want to call it, it was awesome! Maroy’s partner that day was Josh Radcliff, from the University of Texas-Arlington, and he was quoted as saying, “I made an eagle, and got beat by one shot!”

Maroy’s team mate, Conner Bjugstad, witnessed the Albatross from another hole. “I was just really excited for him, I guess,” Bjugstad said with a smirk on his face. (Apparently the two have a little friendly competition going on every day in practice.) “It was neat to see.” Maroy didn’t actually see his ball go in; he saw it take a bounce and “knew it was close, but wasn’t sure.” It wasn’t until Bjugstad let Maroy know that it went straight in, that Maroy had a good feeling, but still needed to “see it to believe it.” Bjugstad said he too has hit an Albatross, at Willow Springs Golf Course during his sophomore year of high school. It was just during a practice round, on a 220 yard hole, but nonetheless he knows how rare they really are.
What’s even more rare, is hitting an Albatross AND a hole-in-one during the same round. And, that is exactly what Vetle Maroy did later on in the day. Six holes after the great Albatross, Maroy teed up with his 8 iron on hole 13, and knocked it 160 yards into the hole. “I saw this one go in. It was a lower, shorter view and it landed about 8 feet behind, and rolled back in.” This is Maroy’s second time to hit a hole-in-one; the first back home on a course in Norway about 6 years ago.

When conducting the interview with Maroy, he was presented a list of nine names from the Double Eagle Club (The Worldwide Registry for Double Eagles Score) - names of the nine individuals who have ever been on record to have completed an Albatross and hole-in-one in the same round. At the top of that list, the first name recorded in 1939, was the name of Coach John R. Wooden. Maroy was asked “Do you know how rare something like this is? Did you know you’d be added to a list with names like John Wooden?!” Maroy appeared very humble, and somewhat naïve about the rarity of such an event. “I know that it is probably rare, but I didn’t know that there are only nine people who have done this.” The founder of the Double Eagle Club, Michael Christensen, has requested that Vetle Maroy go online and add his information to the website. The 20 year old from Norway should be the 10th name listed on this list.

To show Maroy’s modesty, after he shot a 68 that first day, hit an Albatross and a hole-in-one all in the same round - when asked what the most exciting part of the tournament was, he replied, “that we won the tournament by one stroke.” The Odessa College Wranglers finished first, with a team combined score of 872 (8 over par.) This was the final golf tournament for the Wranglers until the Spring 2015 season. The boys in blue wrapped up the season with a five tournament win streak and are currently ranked #1 in both the NCJAA D-I top 20 Polls and the Golf Coaches Association Polls.